CalCOFI IEH-formatted ascii files

The IEH format was developed in 1983 as an archive & ascii distribution format for CalCOFI data. Coined by programmer David Newton during development of the 128-character format, IEH stands for "Is Everybody Happy?". During its design, computer punch card for data entry were 128 characters wide & space was at a premium. In order to maximize the data reporting space, decimals were removed. So IEH's ascii format is column-specific, refer to the IEH Index page for the data index. Although IEH data files are still generated for each cruise, they are considered legacy data products. They are generated strictly for continuity of the time-series and for end-users who have IEH-specific requirements such as data processing or import scripts that require this format.

IEH's are available for each cruise in two formats:

• Observed data only (file nomenclature: YYMMarch.ieh; YY=year, MM=month). Tabulation of data from seawater samples collected and analyzed.  
• Interpolated standard levels (file nomenclature: YYMMt.ieh). Tabulation of data from seawater samples collected and analyzed plus interpolated (calculated) standard depth data. Since bottles hung on wire or CTD bottle trips may miss target depth by a few meters, standard depths may need to be interpolated from nearby observed-depth data. Standard depth data allow models or specific-depth contour figures to be generated.

The CalCOFI Hydrographic Data Report spatial pattern figures are vertical (line 90 only) and horizontal (10 and 200 meters along the standard CalCOFI grid) contour plotted hydrographic data.

CalCOFI Hydrographic Data Report contains a table of the macrozooplankton biomass, as wet displacement volume, after removal of large (>5 ml) organisms from the starboard side of a 71 cm mouth diameter paired net (bongo net) equipped with 0.505mm plankton mesh; towed obliquely from 210 meters to the surface.

These data are available as: pdf; Microsoft Access relational database table in CalCOFI's Hydrographic Database; comma-delimited ascii file (csv).

CalCOFI Carbon -14 (¹⁴C) primary productivity experiments are conducted daily from local apparent noon (LAN) to civil twilight (CT). Three seawater samples from 6 depths (light-levels) are collected and innoculated with ¹⁴C. There are usually 15 daily incubation experiments per cruise and the resulting ¹⁴C-uptake measurements are reported separately in the cruise data report.  The tabulated data include pertinent, related hydrographic data along with primary productivity data. These data are available as: pdfs; Microsoft Access relational database - as a subset of the complete hydrographic database, separate table; primary productivity comma-delimited ascii file (csv).

CalCOFI publishes quarterly cruise Hydrographic Data Reports as electronic documents (PDFs). Each data report tabulates the seawater measurements collected on the standard 75 (Summer, Fall) or 104 (Winter, Spring) CTD-rosette stations each cruise. Please note that some cruises may have fewer reported stations due to bad weather or equipment failure that reduced the number of stations successfully occupied.
The data presented are a combination of CTD sensor data (temperature, salinity, & oxygen) and seawater analyses (salinity, oxygen, nutrients, chlorophyll-a & phaeopigments) plus derived data (sigma-theta, dynamic heights, specific volume anomaly, potential temperature). Standard depths such as 10m & 100m may include interpolated measurements and are footnoted with "ISL". ISL temperature, salinity, & oxygen data may be observed CTD sensor data, footnoted with "D". Each report includes an introduction outlining the standard practices and methods used to collect data, ancillary project participates, standard parameter contour figures, personnel, & macrozooplankton displacement volumes.

Prior to 2003, CalCOFI published & printed bi-annual hardcopy Hydrographic Data Reports which were sent to libraries, researchers, and institutions around the world. These reports have been scanned and all data reports are available as pdfs. All hydrographic report tabulated data are available in several forms: pdfs, Microsoft Access relational database, comma-separated ascii files (csv), sql database files, & xml files.

• Main Hydrographic Data Report Page on newdata.calcofi.com